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player ready...The Democratic National Committee has written dozens of checks to pay Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun’s campaign creditors, including two of the law firms helping her with a federal audit of her campaign treasury.
The Illinois Democrat, who will not face re-election until 1998, got more than $95,000 from the committee in the last six months of 1993, including more than $72,000 in direct payments to creditors.
She still ended the year $608,838 in debt, campaign records show.
“No candidate likes to have debt,” said Kiki Moore, a spokeswoman for the committee. “She had a particularly tough race (in 1992). Anything we can do to get her debt down, we’d like to help.”
The committee was not as generous in direct payment of bills owed by any other member of Congress. The only other direct payment made during the same period was a $3,994 check to cover a travel bill for former Sen. Robert Krueger of Texas.
It was disclosed Tuesday that the Federal Election Commission is auditing Moseley-Braun’s campaign finances. The senator said Wednesday that she welcomed the action.
Lynette Moten, her spokeswoman, said the audit should “put to rest the rumor, gossip and innuendo” about campaign operations.
Moten said the campaign is putting together a “debt reduction” committee whose goal is to reduce Moseley-Braun’s debt substantially by September. And she said campaign officials expect additional money from the committee to help pay creditors.
Even with the committee’s generosity, Moseley-Braun owes more now than she did when she was elected to the Senate in 1992.
Campaign records show that Moseley-Braun paid her former campaign manager and ex-fiance, Kgosie Matthews, $47,600 in the first four months of 1993 to help raise money for her treasury at the same time its debts were mounting. He was dropped from the campaign payroll after April, and Moseley-Braun ended their engagement earlier this year.
Democratic disclosure reports show that the committee mailed checks totaling $72,674 in the last six months of 1993 to pay bills owed by Moseley-Braun’s campaign for hotels, limousines, furniture rentals, travel, political consulting, advertising, printing, legal advice and other items.
The committee paid $6,239 to the Cleveland law firm of Hatcher, Coaxum, Hewitt and Grimes and $3,604 to the Chicago firm of Wildman, Harrold, Allen and Dixon. Both are helping Moseley-Braun in the FEC audit.
In addition to checks written directly to Moseley-Braun’s creditors, the committee also passed along contributions totaling $23,750 directly to her campaign treasury. The committee gave the senator an additional $35,991 in the first six months of 1993.
Moseley-Braun’s upset victory over incumbent Sen. Alan Dixon in the 1992 Democratic primary turned her into a national political star, helping her to draw contributions from coast to coast. She went on to defeat Republican candidate Richard Williamson to become the first black woman in the U.S. Senate.